Randa Chahoud was born in 1975 in Berlin to a German and a Syrian parent. She did internships in the fields of photography and stage design. From 1997 to 2006 she studied directing at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (dffb). As a student she directed music videos and portraits of bands, for example for the Berlin-based 17 Hippies and the French band Les Hurlements d'Léo.

Together with her fellow students Dennis Jacobsen and Oliver Jahn, she directed the short films "Aus den Sterntagebüchern des Ijon Tichy" (1999) and "Aus den Sterntagebüchern des Ijon Tichy II" (2000), based on themes and motifs from Stanisław Lem's "Star Diaries". The first part won the audience award at the International Short Film Festival Hamburg. In 2001 Chahoud completed an internship with the director of photography Michael Ballhaus on the set of Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York".

In 2005 she was nominated for the German Screenplay Award for her screenplay "Cirkofolie" (unrealized). In the same year Chahoud founded the production company Kosmische Kollegen together with Jacobsen and Jahn and realised the six-part television series "Ijon Tichy: Raumpilot" for public braodcaster ZDF in 2006. The series was also the graduation project for the trio and won them the German Television Award 2007. In 2008 they were nominated for the prestigious Grimme Award. A second season of "Ijon Tichy: Raumpilot" followed in 2011, which also received a nomination for the Grimme Award.

Also for television, Chahoud directed the thriller series "Bruder: Schwarze Macht" (2017), about the radicalization of a young Muslim. In the same year, she began shooting the feature film "Nur ein Augenblick" (The Accidental Rebel"), about a young musician from Berlin who returns to his Syrian homeland to rescue his abducted brother from the war zone. The film celebrated its premiere at the film festival Max Ophüls Preis 2020, leading actor Mehdi Meskar won the award for Best Newcomer. In 2019 Chahoud directed the episode "Karitz" (2019) of the crime series "Tatort".